All Trails Lead To Santa Fe

Santa Fe, as a tourist destination and an international art market with its attraction of devotees to opera, flamenco, good food and romanticized cultures, is also a city of deep historical drama. Like its seemingly "adobe style-only" architecture, all one has to do is turn the corner and discover a miniature Alhambra, a Romanesque Cathedral, or a French-inspired chapel next to one of the oldest adobe chapels in the United States to realize its long historical diversity. This fusion of architectural styles is a mirror of its people, cultures and history. From its early origins, Native American presence in the area through the archaeological record is undeniable and has proved to be a force to be reckoned with as well as reconciled. It was, however, the desire of European arrivals, Spaniards, already mixed in Spain and Mexico, to create a new life, a new environment, different architecture, different government, culture and spiritual life that set the foundations for the creation of "La Villa de Santa Fe." Indeed, Santa Fe remained Spanish from its earliest Spanish presence of 1607 until 1821. But history is not just the time between dates but the human drama that creates the "City Different." The Mexican Period of 1821-1848, American occupation and the following Territorial Period into Statehood are no less defining and, in fact, are as traumatic for some citizens as the first European contact. This tapestry was all held together by the common belief that Santa Fe was different and after centuries of coexistence a city with its cultures, tolerance and beauty was worth preserving. Indeed, the existence and awareness of this oldest of North American capitals was to attract the famous as well as infamous: poets, writers, painters, philosophers, scientists and the sickly whose prayers were answered in the thin dry air of the city situated at the base of the Sangre de Cristos at 7,000 foot elevation. We hope readers will enjoy "All Trails Lead to Santa Fe" and in its pages discover facts not revealed before, or, in the sense of true adventure, enlighten and encourage the reader to continue the search for the evolution of "La Villa de Santa Fe."

This question-and-answer book contains 400 reminders of what is known and what is sometimes forgotten or misunderstood about a city that was founded more than 400 years ago. Not a traditional history book, this group of questions is presented in an apparently random order, and the answers occasionally meander off topic, as if part of a casual conversation.

One of the first Anglo-Americans to record their travels to New Mexico, Dr. Rowland Willard (1794–1884) journeyed west on the Santa Fe Trail in 1825 and then down the Camino Real into Mexico, taking notes along the way. This edition of the young physician’s travel diaries and subsequent autobiography, annotated by New Mexico Deputy State Librarian Joy L. Poole, is a rich historical source on the two trails and the practice of medicine in the 1820s. Few Americans knew much about New Mexico when Willard set out on his journey from St. Charles, Missouri, where he had recently completed a medical apprenticeship. The growing commerce with the Southwest presented opportunities for the ambitious doctor. On his first day travelling the plains of the Santa Fe Trail, he met the mountain man Hugh Glass, who regaled Willard with stories of his wilderness experiences. Conducting a physical examination of Glass, Dr. Willard provided the only eye witness medical account of Glass’s deformities resulting from a grizzly bear attack. Willard referred to the mountain man as Father Glass, a testimony to his age. He visited Santa Fe, practiced medicine in Taos, then traveled south to Chihuahua, arriving during a measles epidemic. Willard treated patients in Mexico for two years before returning to Missouri in 1828. Willard’s narrative challenges long-accepted assumptions about the exact routes taken by pack trains on the Santa Fe Trail. It also provides thrilling glimpses of a landscape densely populated with wildlife. The doctor describes “a great theater of nature,” with droves of elk and buffalo, and “wolf and antelope skipping in every direction.” With his traveling companions he hunted buffalo by crawling after them on all fours, afterward making jerky out of bison meat and boats out of their hides. Willard also details his medical practice, offering a revealing view of physicians’ operating practices in a time when sanitation and anesthesia were rare. The Santa Fe Trail and Camino Real took Willard on the journey of a lifetime. This account recalls the early days of the Santa Fe Trail trade and westward American migration, when a doctor from Missouri could cross paths with mountain men, traders, Mexican clergymen, and government officials on their way to new opportunities.

Nación Genízara examines the history, cultural evolution, and survival of the Genízaro people. The contributors to this volume cover topics including ethnogenesis, slavery, settlements, poetics, religion, gender, family history, and mestizo genetics. Fray Angélico Chávez defined Genízaro as the ethnic term given to indigenous people of mixed tribal origins living among the Hispano population in Spanish fashion. They entered colonial society as captives taken during wars with Utes, Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, Navajos, and Pawnees. Genízaros comprised a third of the population by 1800. Many assimilated into Hispano and Pueblo society, but others in the land-grant communities maintained their identity through ritual, self-government, and kinship. Today the persistence of Genízaro identity blurs the lines of distinction between Native and Hispanic frameworks of race and cultural affiliation. This is the first study to focus exclusively on the detribalized Native experience of the Genízaro in New Mexico.

Women in early 18th century Spanish Colonial New Mexico had rights and privileges under Spanish law that were not enjoyed by other women in North America until the late 19th and early 20th century. Women were considered separate entities under the law and valuable members of Spanish society. As such, they could own property, inherit in their own name, and act as court witnesses. In particular they could make accusations and denunciations to the local alcalde mayor and governor, which they frequently did. The documents in this book show that Spanish Colonial women were aware of their rights and took advantage of them to assert themselves in the struggling communities of the New Mexican frontier. In the documents, the women are shown making complaints of theft, physical and verbal abuse by their husbands or other women, and of non-payment of dowries or other inheritance. Other documents are included showing men accusing women of misrepresenting property ownership and dowry payments and of adultery and slander. Spain was a legalistic society and both women and men used the courts to settle even minor matters. Because the court proceedings were written down by a scribe and stored in the archives, many documents still exist. From these, thirty-one have been selected allowing us to hear the words of some outspoken Spanish women and the sometimes angry men, speaking their minds in court about their spouses, lovers of their spouses, children, and relatives, as well as their land, livestock and expected inheritance. The documents translated into English in this book are a small number of the existing documents held in Santa Fe at the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, at the Bancroft Library at University of California, the Archivo General de la Nacion in Mexico City, and elsewhere. A synopsis, editor’s notes, maps, and biographical notes are provided. The material can be considered a companion, in part, to Ralph Emerson Twitchell’s 1914 two volumes, The Spanish Archives of New Mexico, available in new editions from Sunstone Press. Sunstone Press has also published a Spanish/English edition both in both hardcover and softcover.

The timeline of American history has always swept through Santa Fe, New Mexico. Settled by ancient peoples, explored by conquistadors, conquered by the U.S. cavalry, Santa Fe owns a story that stretches from the talking drums of the Pueblos to the high math of complexity theory pioneered at the Santa Fe Institute. This fresh presentation, 400 years after the Spanish founded the town in 1610, presents the full arc of Santa Fe's story that sifts through its long, complex, thrilling history. From the moment of first contact between the explorers and the native peoples, Santa Fe became a crossroads, a place of accommodations and clashes. Faith defined, sustained, and liberated the people. All the while, scoundrels and abusers of power elbowed their way into civic life. And who should piece together that story of the country's oldest capital city? The Santa Fe New Mexican, the oldest newspaper in the American West, walking side by side with the people of Santa Fe for 160 years-a long life by the standards of publishing though merely a short span in Santa Fe's timeless drama. This book was compiled from a series that appeared monthly in "The Santa Fe New Mexican" in honor of the city's 400th anniversary commemoration in 2010. It illuminates Santa Fe's enduring promise to cling to roots that are bottomless and to leap into a future that is boundless. Over 400 pages, many illustrations, timelines, index, and detailed bibliographies. Included is a Study Guide for teachers, students, and anyone interested in Santa Fe and the American Southwest.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, was a 1,600-mile braid of trails that led from Mexico City, in the center of New Spain, to the provincial capital of New Mexico on the edge of the empire’s northern frontier. The Royal Road served as a lifeline for the colonial system from its founding in 1598 until the last days of Spanish rule in the 1810s. Throughout the Mexican and American Territorial periods, the Camino Real expanded, becoming part of a larger continental and international transportation system and, until the trail was replaced by railroads in the late nineteenth century, functioned as the main pathway for conquest, migration, settlement, commerce, and culture in today’s American Southwest. More than 400 miles of the original trail lie within the United States today, and stretch from present-day San Elizario, Texas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. This segment comprises El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail. It was added to the United States National Trail System in 2000 and is still in use today. This book guides the reader along the trail with histories and overviews of places in New Mexico, West Texas and the Ciudad Juárez area. It includes a broad overview of the trail’s history from 1598 until the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s, and describes the communities, landscape, archaeology, architecture, and public interpretation of this historic transportation corridor.